While
devotion to the Sto. Niño has done much to sustain the faith
of the people there are those who argue that it has not helped them
to mature. It is an image that has Jesus as an infant and yet dressed
as an adult. It seems to indicate by-passing the difficult and necessary
formative stage of adolescence. Sometimes this stage is also more
or less by-passed, or not handled with sensitivity, in our culture.
The only story we have of the childhood of Jesus is in Luke 2:41-50.
It is the story of his being lost in the Temple and of his peculiar
response to Mary and Joseph when they eventually found him. It shows
us that Jesus was a very normal teenager and shows us how Mary handled
the situation. It tells us that the youth, Jesus, left the group,
returning from visiting the temple in Jerusalem, without asking permission.
When they found him after three days he talked back to his parents.
When he did this his parents did not understand. From this it would
seem that it is perfectly normal for a young persons as they grow
up to resist parental control, to talk back to parents and it is also
normal that parents should sometimes be totally confused by their
children's behavior. If it happened in the holy family itself it is
likely to happen in ordinary families. The difference will be in the
handling.
We
are told in the Gospel that Mary held all of these things contemplatively
in her heart. The parents of Jesus did not burst into a rage or did
not try to make Jesus ashamed by their punishing words. They seemed
rather to follow the example that Jesus himself had set when he was
lost in the temple. In the temple, instead of being frightened at
being lost, Jesus sat amongst the doctors listening to them and asking
them questions. It is quite amazing that these old men listened to
the child. They did so because he listened to them first. What happened
then, and still happens to us, is very clear. When we are afraid we
do not listen. The opposite is also true. When we listen we cease
to be afraid.
Very
often we do not have listening in a family because there is fear.
There may be fear of appearing weak, of losing face or authority,
or of being refused or punished. This fear leads one to want to control
by threat or violence so that the other person then becomes afraid.
If, on the other hand, there is honest listening there will be a realization
that there is a fearful human being at the other side. It is very
hard, but necessary, for parents to admit their own fears and weakness
sometimes to their children. They begin this process by listening
to what is going on in their own hearts in prayer. Having listened
to the fears within they can begin to listen to the fears of others
and that is the beginning of love.
